IN THE NEWS

Escaping Philly’s Soda Tax
Independent Institute • January 18, 2017

On January 1, the city of Philadelphia enacted a soda tax, or a “Sweetened Beverage Tax ” (SBT). The new policy levies a tax of 1.5 cents per ounce on most drinks containing a sugar-based sweetener or artificial sugar substitute (e.g. high fructose corn syrup). Read More.

If you think you're already paying too much for sweetened liquid refreshments, hold on to your wallet. If approved by the Illinois General Assembly and signed into law, Senate Bill 9 would sharply raise the price consumers pay for packaged sodas, syrup-based coffee drinks and tea. Read More.

Philadelphia residents are getting hit by the first big-city soda tax in the country, and they’re not happy. Pictures are going viral of hefty receipts that show the 1.5 cent-per-ounce tax adding up to several dollars extra on a single purchase. Read More.

If you like your Dr. Pepper, you can keep it. You just have to pay more. Philadelphia is the latest city to adopt a tax on soda, or almost any beverage with added sweeteners, natural or artificial. The tax applies whether you buy your Diet Coke at a restaurant or a grocery store. Read More.

Philadelphia's soda tax went into effect this week, catching many consumers by surprise despite being passed months ago after a long debate by city council. It more than doubles the price of some beverages. Read More.

Corey Dorsey has decided to stop drinking soda.
It all started last week when the Pepsi distributor came by the cheesesteak shop where he works at 53rd and Market Streets in West Philadelphia to make a delivery. They started joking about the city's new tax on soda and other sugary drinks that started Sunday. Read More.

Philly finds new tax not so sweet
Philly.com • January 4, 2017

Those ounces add up. Philadelphia's 1.5-cent-per-ounce sweetened-beverage tax is now in effect, and stores across the city have jacked up prices, to the outrage of some thirsty customers. Read More.

Sports Drinks Are Now More Expensive than Beer Thanks to the Philadelphia Soda Tax
Tax Foundation • January 4, 2017

On January 1st, the controversial Philadelphia soda tax took effect. It is levied at a rate of 1.5 cents per ounce, which is 24 times the tax levied on beer in the state of Pennsylvania. This stark new tax has prompted a few interesting reactions on Twitter as customers are starting to see just how large the effects on prices of sweetened beverages in the city are. One person on Craigslist (the post has now been flagged for removal) posted a joke page offering to smuggle in untaxed soda, noting that they “deal in weight only” and “cash or Bitcoin accepted.” Read More.
Philly residents sour about soda tax
CBS News • January 4, 2017

Philadelphia has became the largest city to impose a tax on sugary drinks. Many consumers are not liking the price hike, 1.5 cents per ounce, which adds almost $2 to a one-gallon container. Jericka Duncan has more.
Read More.

Adding more taxes to beverages won’t end obesity. Editor: A recent letter from Dr. William A. Neal makes important points about the challenges our state faces with rising rates of obesity. These are challenges that must be addressed, but taxing common beverages is a Band-Aid approach that will not solve this complex problem. Read More.

Laws can’t change preferences — sometimes they can barely change behaviors. But repeated failures haven’t stopped moralizing politicians from pushing policies that supposedly “nudge” individuals toward healthier choices. Politicians say they intend to help people in need with policies like soda taxes and limits on what low-income people can buy with food stamps. But the policies often hurt the very objects of concern. Read More.

If 15 major cities adopt a sugary drink tax of just 1 cent per ounce, diabetes could be slashed, more than 100,000 cases of obesity prevented and 3,683 deaths averted according to a new report from Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Read More.

With the recent implementation of new soda taxes at the city and county level, questions of why and how to enact them have become popular for discussion. Yesterday, the Tax Policy Center published a research report that explores the most efficient way to enact soda taxes based on politicians’ priorities. In the report, they do not argue whether soda taxes are good or bad policy, but assume that the government has already enacted sweetened beverage taxes and consider the best way to apply them. Read More.

Michael Bloomberg and the Global War on … Soda
Morning Consult • November 3, 2016

Even though he served 12 years as mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg’s most memorable moment in office might be the ban on big soda he tried (and failed) to put in place before the courts put a stop to it. In his position as a World Health Organization global ambassador, Bloomberg has been able to take his anti-sugar crusade global: just last week, the organization issued a global call for taxes on sugary drinks that mirrors campaigns Bloomberg is funding all across America. At the same time, his activities raise worrying questions about just how much influence private donors can have over United Nations policies. Read More.

California’s moralistic meddlers have moved from Berkeley to Oakland and brought with them Measure HH, a ballot proposition that would impose a 1-cent-per-ounce excise tax on sugar-sweetened beverages. Read More.

As a resident of Boulder since 1999, I have found Boulder to be a diverse and vibrant community where we take great pride and responsibility in ensuring that our future is as bright as our past. Boulder is a place where we may have differing perspectives, yet share similar values, and a community in which the private sector, the public sector and local government cooperatively can contribute to providing a good lifestyle, great jobs and support for key community efforts. We are a community that comes together to solve complex problems and to help our neighbors in need. Read More.

Soda Taxes Have No Pop
U.S. News • October 18, 2016

With four U.S. cities set to vote on whether to enact excise taxes on soda, researchers at the World Health Organization recently made headlines with a report advising countries to tax sugary beverages at rates of at least 20 percent. Proponents say that such a tax will have positive impacts on a variety of health outcomes like obesity, type 2 diabetes prevalence and tooth decay. However, these proposals are likely to do a lot more harm than good. Read More.

Why the World Health Organization is Wrong on Soda Taxes
Reason.com • October 15, 2016

Earlier this week, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a report, "Fiscal Policies for Diet and Prevention of Noncommunicable Diseases," that suggests countries around the world should enact exorbitant taxes on soda—as high as 50 percent—"and other foods and beverages high in sugar, salt and fat" as a means of combating obesity and other diet-related diseases. The report also urges governments to adopt subsidies to make fruit and vegetables less expensive to purchase. Read More.

World health officials want super-size tax on soda and sugary drinks, but are countries ready to swallow that?
Los Angeles Times • October 12, 2016

The World Health Organization is backing a controversial remedy to reverse the global rise in obesity and type 2 diabetes — a 20% to 50% soda tax. Read More.
Why Pro-Soda-Tax Ad in Bay Area Is Misleading, Part II
Independent Institute • October 10, 2016

The November ballot in Oakland and San Francisco will feature proposals for a soda tax in each city, known as Measure HH and Proposition V, respectively, which would charge soda distributors an additional one cent per ounce of soda they sell in each city (or $2.88 per case). The tax would also apply to the distribution of other sugar-sweetened drinks. Read More.

EDITORIAL: Sugar pop
Review Journal • September 30, 2016

In the Nanny State, government knows best. It gives you advice you didn’t ask for and laws you don’t need, rewarding itself with increasing power and revenue, while leaving you with fewer freedoms and less cash in your pocket. Read More.

As a student at the University of Colorado, I am very concerned with the proposed beverage tax that will be on the ballot this November. I can say with full confidence that this measure will have a heavy impact on CU's student body. A substantial amount of college students' money is spent towards food and drink. This tax would place a heavy burden on our wallets. Read More.

A recent article from your paper (“Policy experts look to state’s soda tax as possible revenue boost,” Aug. 17) omits a critical fact — taxes on beverages do not improve public health and have been shown to have no impact on obesity. Read More.

The owner of a small grocery store in Oakland’s Fruitvale district alleged Thursday that a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages that’s on the November ballot would hurt small businesses such as his and result in higher prices for his customers. Read More.

There could hardly be a worse way for government to raise money or tackle public health than by raising the price of one item on the typical American grocery list. That is why Americans keep telling their elected leaders to find another way. Read More.

In recent weeks the city of Philadelphia attracted media attention by passing a regressive excise tax that will raise the price of almost every product in the beverage aisle. Not only is the tax against the law and likely to be overturned in court according to a former Pennsylvania chief justice, the majority of Philadelphians oppose it. Read More.

Philadelphia’s Soda Tax Is a Bad Idea Other Cities Will Copy
Reason.com • July 2, 2016

Earlier this month, Philadelphia adopted a penny-and-a-half-per-ounce soda tax. The revenue from the tax will be used in large part to expand pre-kindergarten opportunities—a potentially dubious pursuit. A critic might note that spending tens of millions of dollars to expand pre-K in a city where even the most optimistic reports show city schools already fail to educate children and are routinely broke may not be the best idea. Read More.

Soda taxes slim wallets, not waistlines
USA Today • June 30, 2016

Since Philadelphia’s city council approved a 1.5 cent per ounce tax on soda this month, “public health” advocates, led by former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, are funding similar campaigns in other cities – with a twist. Philly’s tax was almost exclusively billed as a revenue-raiser, but proposed soda taxes in Oakland, Boulder, and San Francisco are being sold as tools to fight obesity and diabetes. Yet, that claim requires the would-be taxers to run against an inconvenient fact: Soda taxes slim wallets, not waistlines. Read More.

Council members get earful from restaurant tax foes, supporters
South Bend Tribune • June 29, 2016

Everybody likes the zoo. However, support for a proposal to implement a food and beverage tax to raise funds is far from unanimous. That was what members of the Mishawaka and South Bend common councils and the St. Joseph County Council learned from the input they received at a spirited public hearing Wednesday on what has become known as the "zoo tax." Read More.

DeLauro’s sour on sweet
New Boston Post • June 29, 2016

On the heels of Philadelphia’s misguided soda tax, former New York Mayor (and well known soda scold) Michael Bloomberg (who financed the pro-soda tax campaign in Philadelphia) announced he will fund new soda tax measures in San Francisco and Oakland, California. And now, just in time for those hot summer months, a prominent New England Congresswoman is renewing calls for a national tax on sweetened beverages. Read More.

Potential Soda Tax a ‘Lazy Way to Fight Obesity’
NACS • June 23, 2016

With organizations and some politicians clamoring for a tax on sugar-sweetened drinks, the Australasian Association of Convenience Stores (AACS) has slammed the move as a lazy way to address a complex problem, the Herald Sun reports. The Greens, one of the groups supporting the levy, has proposed a 20% flat tax on sugary beverages to stem the rise of obesity in the country. Read More.

Can taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) improve the health of Mexicans? They can, says a study released June 16 by the Mexican National Institute of Public Health and The Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina. Read More.

Soda Taxes: a Failed Experiment that Needs to End
Competitive Enterprise Institute • June 14, 2016

Sin taxes have existed since at least the reign of Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt, who legend has it enacted a tax on beer to reduce public drunkenness and raise money to war against Rome. Also known as “lifestyle taxes,” sin taxes are placed on goods based on the notion that increasing the price will discourage individual behaviors perceived as unhealthy—like smoking—or dangerous when consumed irresponsibly—like drinking—and as having negative effects on society. At the same time, these taxes raise revenue to offset the supposed public costs of the supposedly harmful products being taxed, or to fund other government programs. Today, public health advocates champion taxing sugary foods and drinks, like soda, as a way to fight obesity. Read More.

Bungled Sugar Tax is nothing more than a tax on the poor
Taxpayers Alliance • May 30, 2016

The TaxPayers' Alliance today renews its call for the Government to abandon its proposed Sugar Tax as new research reveals that it is entirely arbitrary and has little to do with the sugar content of the products it affects. Read More.

A plan for a new "soda tax" is generating a lot of buzz in the capital, but small business owners fear it could hurt their bottom line. Read More.

The war on obesity won’t be won with soft drink taxes
Troy Media • May 15, 2016

The media loves soft drink taxes. In 2014, after Mexico passed a 10 per cent tax on a sugary drinks to fight obesity, the press coverage was almost universal in its praise and support. In Britain, The Guardian called the move “groundbreaking” and imagined it providing evidence to justify similar laws around the world. A report from Wired would claim the tax was working as intended, and that other countries should follow Mexico’s lead. NOR and The New York Times both credited lower pop sales in Mexico to the tax. Read More.

“One of the world’s highest soda taxes appears to be working. After just one year, purchases of sugary drinks in Mexico are down 12 percent, a new study shows,” crowed the Bloomberg editorial board in January. Read More.

The prospect of a Michael Bloomberg presidential run may be fading, but the specter of tax hikes on sugary foods and beverages is ever-looming. In a move that Bloomberg View hopes will impact other governments worldwide, George Osborne, the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced last week a two-tiered sin tax hitting high-sugar British beverages in 2018. Read More.

Put down that can of Coke, hide your Iced Cappuccinos, the health police are coming. Luckily, the health police don’t carry guns or handcuffs, they just have fancy titles, big paycheques and like to lobby the government to micro-manage which food Ontarians eat. The local head of the health police is chief medical officer for London and Middlesex County, Dr. Chris Mackie, and he thinks the cure to all your health ills is a new tax on pop. Read More.

Why The Sugar-Tax is So Bitter.
Americans for Tax Reform • February 10, 2016

Governments from all across the world, from Mexico to the United Kingdom to Berkeley, Calif. have made a strong effort to warn its citizens about the dangers of sugary drinks. Some governments have even gone as far as to impose an excise tax on sodas and other drinks in an effort to combat obesity. Let us take a look at this so-called government solution. Read More.

A soda tax would divide us
The Davis Enterprise • December 30, 2015

I would like to comment on the City Council’s controversial 3-2 decision to dump a utility user tax with almost no explanation. Instead, virtually all the discussion centered on a potential soda tax. I received an email from a citizen that encapsulated what many of us were wondering as we left the Community Chambers that night. Read More.

Should there be a fat tax on soda and junk food?
CNN Money • December 14, 2015

It's an idea that comes up whenever people bemoan how much sugar Americans consume or how common obesity and diabetes have become. Read More.

Bob Dunning: Why stop with just a soda tax?
The Davis Enterprise • December 9, 2015

EVEN MORE TAXING ISSUES … while we’re on the subject of adding taxes to beverages we put into our bodies, how about adding even more tax to alcoholic beverages served in our downtown bars and restaurants? Read More.

Another Voice: Fast food, soda and candy are not making Americans fat
The Buffalo News • December 9, 2015

There is no gainsaying the fact that we have an obesity problem in the United States. A disproportionate number of young and old Americans are fat, and many believe that the reason for this insalubrious state of affairs is the large amounts of fast food, soda and candy that Americans consume. Therefore, if overweight Americans would like to lose weight, then they need to curtail their consumption of fast food, soda and candy. This is the conventional wisdom on obesity and its cure. Read More.

Bob Dunning: Is it the same jar, or does it get refilled?
The Davis Enterprise • December 8, 2015

“Soda tax could be on June ballot,” said the front page, above-the-fold headline that interrupted an otherwise perfectly unfolding Sunday morning. Read More.

BERKELEY -- Many owners of neighborhood liquor, grocery and convenience stores complain that unlike chain stores, they cannot afford to absorb the 1-cent-per-ounce Berkeley soda tax, and that they are losing business as a result. Read More.

Key says no to sugar tax
Newshub • October 19, 2015

A sugar tax is not on the cards for New Zealand at the moment, Prime Minister John Key says. Read More.

Letter From the Editor: On Coloring Inside the Lines
Food Safety News • October 11, 2015

First off, I don’t mean to disparage anyone on the federal government’s Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee. They are all probably fine folks. It seems that they are all the big names in nutrition working for the big universities — Harvard, Yale, Tufts and those others — that make sideline profits from the ink-stained nutrition newsletter industry. I get mailings from these guys all the time with their teasers promising that, if only I would give them some money, they would tell me what I should be eating. They never tell you anything useful for free. You’ve gotta pay. Read More.

The Chicago Coalition Against Beverage Taxes was joined by beverage industry employees, business organizations, small business owners and hundreds of other industry supporters at City Hall to rally in opposition to Alderman George Cardenas’ proposed discriminatory beverage tax, which proposes a new, penny-per-ounce tax on syrup, powders, canned and bottled drinks, including juices, teas and sodas. The proposed regressive tax would be the third beverage tax on Chicagoans, raising the prices of hundreds of common grocery store items for working families and destroying local jobs. Read More.

Democrats LOVE taxes! On the November, 2016 ballot they are putting on a new tobacco tax, and oil severance tax, an increase in the property tax, probably a sales tax on services for the first time. The Democrats can not wait for an idea to create a new tax. Now, using children, again, they want a tax on soda..claiming this will stop obesity and diabetes. Soda, they say, has too much sugar. Read More.

Confusion Among Berkeley Retailers on Who is Supposed to Pay New Taxes on SodasCBS San Francisco • April 1, 2015

They knew it was coming, but that doesn’t make Berkeley’s new soda tax any easier to swallow. Among retailers and restaurants, there is confusion about who is supposed to pay the new 1-cent per-ounce tax on sugary beverages. Read more.

Opinion: Soda Tax MisguidedBurlington Free Press • April 1, 2015

The soda tax in Mexico is often cited as showing that it lowers soda intake. Yes, but does it lower obesity? That is unknown. Read more.

NY Sen. Gillibrand Argues Against Soda TaxFoodDive • March 27, 2015

Gillibrand’s other primary argument is that even with a soda tax, many people will still buy soda, so a tax wouldn’t be the most effective option. The tax would simply take away money that people could use to buy fruits, vegetables, and other healthy foods. Read more.Berkeley Finds It’s Not Easy Imposing Soda TaxPublicCEO • March 9, 2015

The city of Berkeley, Calif., is finding it’s not easy imposing a soda tax. Since the tax’s Jan. 1 imposition, retailers find it’s a burden changing prices for just one type of item in one city.Read more.

Soda Distributors Frustrated at City of Berkeley’s Lack of Guidance on Soda TaxBerkleyside • March 2, 2015

Several local distributors of sodas and sugary drinks—the sole group responsible for paying the 1-cent-per-ounce tax—share Malaver’s sentiments, arguing that the city has delivered little to no guidance since the passage of the tax. Read more.Have a Coke and a Frown: Berkeley, California’s New Soda Tax Can’t Both Curb Obesity and Raise Significant Tax RevenueU.S. News & World Report • Nov. 25, 2014

Just in time for Thanksgiving – the holiday season when most Americans put on a few pounds – citizens of Berkeley, Calif., approved a ballot measure that would impose a one-cent tax on each ounce of soda. Their goal is to counter the trend of increasing obesity, which advocates of the tax blame largely on soda and other sugar-sweetened drinks. But while the city’s goal to improve the health of its citizens is laudable, its policy is misguided and may in fact cause more damage than good. Read more.Coca-Cola FEMSA cuts 1,300 jobs as Mexico Soda Tax Bitesjust-drinks • Oct. 23, 2014

Coca-Cola FEMSA has had to cut around 1,300 jobs as it copes with Mexico’s new soda tax, but volumes are not being as badly affected as predicted, according to its CFO. Read more.Mexican Soda Tax Effect Waning, Coca-Cola Femsa SaysThe Wall Street Journal • Oct. 22, 2014

Sparkling beverage sales declined modestly during the third quarter for Coca-Cola Femsa, signaling Mexico’s new tax on sugary drinks might be having less of an impact on consumer spending than at the start of the year. Read more.Taxing Drinks Gives Pols a Sugar RushFortune • July 25, 2014

There have been studies coming to various conclusions about soda taxes, but the bottom line is that they aren’t fair and, for the most part, they don’t work. Read more.Coca-Cola Femsa Sees Thirst for Soda Overcoming 2014 TaxBloomberg • July 22, 2014

Research Finds Soda Tax Does Little to Decrease ObesityUniversity of Wisconsin-Madison News • March 24, 2014

Extra sales taxes on soda may not do anything to improve people’s health, according to new research from health economist Jason Fletcher of the La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Read more.What’s the Right Way to Tax Sugary Drinks?Los Angeles Times • Feb. 18, 2014

If you believe obesity is a serious health risk in the United States and sugary drinks are a major contributor to the problem—and that’s surely the prevailing nutritionists’ view—then a sugared beverage tax has to be on your radar screen. Now two university economists have found levying this sort of tax is the wrong approach. Read more.

By the middle of October, if everything stays on schedule, Mexico’s legislators may well prove that they haven’t learned a thing from policies that have been tried and failed, from Denmark to New York City. Read more.Understanding the Heterogeneous Nature of the Demand for Soft Drinks in Mexico: Why Social Determinants Also MatterMunich Personal RePEc Archive • July 2013

In order to design policies that adequately affect the demand for soft drinks on high consumers and benefit the poor, social factors should be considered. A comprehensive obesity prevention strategy should complement taxes with policies that affect social determinants such as the local provision of safe water and local food market conditions. Read more.Denmark’s Fat Tax Harms EconomyNational Center for Policy Analysis • June 6, 2013

Denmark’s tax on saturated fat was hailed as a world-leading public health policy when it was introduced in October 2011, but it was abandoned 15 months later when the unintended consequences became clear, says Christopher Snowdon, director of lifestyle economics at the Institute of Economic Affairs. The economic effects of the fat tax were almost invariably negative. Read more.What the World Can Learn from Denmark’s Failed Fat TaxWashington Post • Nov. 11, 2012

The Danish tax ministry announced Saturday it’s scrapping a fat tax it introduced in October of last year, saying the measure has only increased companies’ administrative costs and caused Danes to venture across the border to purchase their unhealthy snacks. Read more.Soda Taxes and Substitution Effects: Will Obesity Be Affected?Choices Magazine • 3rd Quarter, 2011

The focus on obesity is an important issue in this debate because much of the available evidence suggests that soda taxation may have negligible effects on obesity. If obesity was the main reason to consider taxation, then this evidence may imply that soda taxes may be unwarranted. Read more.